Ten Guns from Texas: A Duff MacCallister Western

When Duff MacCallister journeys to Texas to deliver 100 head of Angus cattle, he finds a land on fire. Unruly, lawless teams of fence cutters, branded Blue Devils by the locals, are rampaging across grazing land and cutting fences in the name of an Eastern land company. The ranchers are fighting back, and Duff joins the fray. But the fight leads to Austin and into an even deadlier mission.

This Violent Land: A Smoke Jensen Novel of the West

Kirby - later Smoke - Jensen has just earned his first paying job as a deputy US marshal for the Colorado Territory and is sent to the lawless town of Las Animas. There he finds a sheriff too cowardly to face the outlaw leader Cole Dawson, whose six-gun has left a lot of good men dead. Young Smoke feels no such fear. He takes Dawson down fast. Then the real fight begins. It turns out Dawson is only a cog in a crooked plot hatched by someone hiding behind the law.

Strong Suspicions: Emmett Strong Westerns, Book 2

After pursuing a cold-blooded murderer all the way to Nevada, Texas Ranger Emmett Strong is returning home to San Antonio - but not alone. He's found a girl he longs to marry. Finding someone to tie the knot for them is proving to be a challenge, however, owing to the fact that she's the daughter of Chinese immigrants. Along the way, there's a ruckus in El Paso's Wild Hog Saloon, and by noon the next day, folks are convinced it was Emmett and his compadres who robbed the saloon owner and beat him up..

The Omaha Trail: Ralph Compton Novels, Book 25

Dane Kramer looks forward to the day when his sprawling Oklahoma cattle ranch will truly be his - no strings attached. With only one more bank payment to make and a buyer in Omaha ready to pay top dollar for a herd of Herefords, he should finally have the banker, Earl Throckmorton, off his back. But Earl has a plan to keep the ranch for himself, and if he has his way, Dane's herd will never make it across the Omaha Trail - and Dane won't make it home alive.

A Colorado Christmas

At the Sugarloaf Ranch, Smoke and Sally Jensen prepare to welcome Preacher home for the holidays - unaware that their friend is trailed by a storm full of trouble. On a mission of vengeance, an old trapper is rescued by Ace and Chance Jensen from ruthless outlaws - and wanted by a driven bounty hunter named Luke Jensen. And, just released from prison, a criminal mastermind assembles a vicious gang of cutthroats to extract his final revenge against his enemy - the sheriff of Big Rock, Colorado.

Those Jensen Boys!

Their father is Luke Jensen, supposedly killed in the Civil War. Their uncle Smoke is one of the fiercest gunfighters the West has ever known. It's no surprise that the inseparable Ace and Chance Jensen have a knack for taking risks - even if they have to blast their way out of them. Chance is a bit of a hothead, good with his gun and his fists. Ace is more of a thinker, sharp as a snake bite and just as deadly quick.

Brutal Night of the Mountain Man

Kate Coldane has sweated blood for this saloon, and she won't let it go down without a fight. Silas Atwood may be the richest rancher in Hudspeth County, but that doesn't give him the right to push her around. When Atwood sends one of his goons to cause trouble at her watering hole, Kate's son, Rusty, guns him down. It may have been self-defense, but Atwood is the law, and that means Rusty has to run.

The Last Ranch: A Novel of the New American West

When Matthew Kerney returns to his ranch in the beautiful San Andres Mountains after serving in Sicily during World War II, he must not only fight to recover physically and emotionally from a devastating war injury, but he must also battle attempts by the US Army to seize control of his land for expanded weapons testing.

Deer Run Trail

The year was 1881, an' young Ruben Beeler was makin' his way along near the Missouri River, findin' work when he could an' livin' the only life he knew. When he come on ol' Arliss Hyatt, beat to hell an' near shot to death, Rube done what he could for him. He didn't know that act of kindness was gonna wind up changin' his whole life, but it did.

A Time for Vultures

The stench of death hangs over Happyville. When Flintlock rides into town, he sees windows caked in dust, food rotting on tables, and a forgotten corpse hanging at the gallows. The citizens of Happyville are dead in their beds, taken down by a deadly scourge, and Flintlock must stay put, or risk spreading the killer disease. His quarantine is broken by Cage Kingfisher, a mad clergyman who preaches the gospel of death. He orders his followers to round up the survivors of Happyville and bring them home.

North to the Salt Fork: A Ralph Compton Novel

Captain Jack Starr served the Confederate cause with honor for four years. The town of Lost Dog Creek promised an opportunity for the war veteran to rebuild his life-and a woman to share it with. But not everyone is willing to roll out the welcome wagon....

Strong Convictions: Emmett Strong Westerns Book 1

In 1876 the seemingly impossible happened in San Antonio, Texas - Emmett Strong, a prodigy of a pistolero, accidentally shot his own young wife in a showdown gone awry. Five years later, death again visits Emmett's family, and now - want to or not - he's going to have to overcome his reluctance to draw his six-gun if he's to catch and bring to justice the crazed gunman who murdered his brother.

Hard Country: A Novel

National best-selling author and New Mexico native Michael McGarrity takes listeners to the wild territory of the late 19th-century American Southwest for this epic tale. After the deaths of his wife and brother, John Kerney gives up his West Texas ranch and heads south in search of a new home. Soon Kerney is offered work trailing cattle to the New Mexico Territory - a job that will forever change his life.

Smoke Jensen, the Beginning

For the first time, an epic account of a boy born into a struggle for survival on the harsh and unforgiving American frontier, the story behind the legend of Smoke Jensen.... On the eve of the Civil War, Kirby Jensen is the youngest of three children living on a hardscrabble ranch in Southwestern Missouri. But in 1861, shots were fired in Charleston harbor, and Kirby's father and brother went to war.

Golden Riders

Arizona Ranger Sam Burrack has something of a reputation for finishing what he sets out to do - usually with a shot from his Winchester. He'd been on the trail of five gunmen for days. Then there was four. And he doesn't plan on stopping until every member of the notorious Golden Riders is behind bars or underground. But when a few of the riders escape in a jailbreak, word gets back to gang leader Braxton Kane that his brother fell under the gun of a lawman. Now Burrack is both hunter and hunted.

A Braver Man's Fear: A Braver Man Series, Book 3

The people of San Angela had no idea Mill Roth left his cattle empire to a woman by the name of Hattie Stamps, the widow of Beaver Stamps, who was Mill's oldest and best friend. Until she showed up claiming the Roth Empire, everything was fine. Some of the citizens, other cattle operators, and people of high standing were filing section claims and branding cattle as fast as they could be caught. Plat Hargis and Floyd Sutter, both wealthy cattle and land owners, were claiming the largest chunks of the properties.

Hard Ride to Wichita: A Ralph Compton Novel

Their friendship started with a schoolyard tussle. Now the need for revenge is what binds Luke Croft and Red Connover together. When Luke taught himself how to fire a Colt, he never imagined he'd turn into a gunman. But when his stepfather's dodgy business dealings turn his life upside down, Luke asks Red to help him destroy the man who murdered his kin. The road to vengeance is long and hard, and the two friends who are barely out of boyhood will need all the help they can get if they want to catch a cold-blooded killer.

The Hunted

Big Charlie Chilton knows better than to lose his temper, but when a loudmouth threatens to expose his long-buried secrets, he can't help but teach the man a lesson about being quiet. Unfortunately it turns out the man was about to make an important supply run for the town's marshal, and Marshal Watt knows just enough about Shotgun Charlie's past to draft him into service in his stead.

The High Graders

The story was that Eli Patterson had died in a gunfight, but Mike Shevlin knew it couldn't be true: The man who'd been like a father to him had been a Quaker. But when Shevlin rides back to Rafter Crossing to uncover the truth, he finds that the quiet ranching community has become a booming mining town. Newfound wealth has not made Rafter a peaceful place, however, and the smell of fear and greed is thick in the air.

Bloodshed of the Mountain Man

Smoke Jensen has journeyed up to the Colorado Rockies to a sell a prized bull to a local rancher. Instead, the rancher and his wife have been mercilessly slaughtered by outlaws only moments before Smoke's arrival. In a hail of bullets, Smoke pulverizes two of the murderers and drags two others to the town of Brown Spur for justice. Come hanging day, the two killers are on the way to the gallows when a thundering gang of raiders crashes into town and rescues them from the jaws of death.

Winchester 1887

On the American frontier, every gun tells a story. A boy in Texas waits for a Christmas present he chose from a Montgomery Ward catalog. The present - a brand-new lever action Winchester 1886 and a box of its big .50-caliber slugs - never makes it there. Instead the rifle is caught up in a train robbery and starts a long and violent journey of its own - from the hands of a notorious, kill-crazy outlaw to an Apache renegade to a hardscrabble rancher and beyond.

Hanging Woman Creek: A Novel

Barnabus Pike is no gunfighter and not much of a street fighter. Eddie Holt is a black boxer in a white man's world. They've both taken their share of hard knocks. Now they're looking to survive a brutal winter in a remote Montana line shack, collect their pay, and settle down for good. Then they cross paths with a hardworking Irish immigrant and his beautiful, spirited sister, who've been burned off their land. It's a fight Pike and Holt don't want, don't need, and don't dare turn their backs on - especially when one of the perpetrators might be one of Pike's old friends.

Tucker

If a man won't fight for what is rightly his, then he ain't much account. With this challenge from his dying father, young Shell Tucker rode out after three men who had stolen the 20,000 dollars his father was carrying. Two of the men he hunted, Doc Sites and Kid Reese, were his friends. Dreaming of adventure, Tucker had wanted to join their gang. But now, with his father gone and the people back home desperately in need of the proceeds from the cattle drive, Shell was determined to uphold his father's reputation and recover their money.

Dark Canyon

When Gaylord Riley walked away from the Coburn gang, he had money and a dream. He worked hard and built a cabin, gathered a herd of cattle, and fell in love with Marie Shattuck. But when he is confronted with false accusations of rustling and murder, Riley is forced to defend his new law-abiding way of life. Outnumbered and facing a lynching party, Riley is surprised when his old friends return to lend him a hand. But how can they help him and keep themselves out of jail?

Publisher's Summary

Proving that the grand Western tradition is alive and well, over four million Ralph Compton books are now in print.

After years of driving cattle and wearing a ranger's badge, disaffected Texan Ed Wright retires - intent on drowning his sorrows with whiskey. But then, widowed rancher Unita Nance - a mighty fine woman, any cowboy would agree - storms into Rosie's Shamrock Saloon and carts Ed's inebriated, six-foot frame out into the sunshine with a wheelbarrow. She has one last job for him, and she won't take no for an answer.

After sobering up, Ed bends under the pressure of Unita's charming persuasion and reluctantly gets back in the saddle. He prays that this will be his final cattle drive, and doesn't realize that scheming desperados are out to ensure it.

Of the many Audible Westerns I've listened to this is one of the good ones. The Author knows his stuff. Horses, guns, geography and makes the main characters very sympathetic. I E lovable. Good stuff. To short.

A few years ago, I would have nixed reading westerns -- even modern westerns. Just not for me I thought. Then along came Craig Johnson's Walt Longmire books read by George Guidall and I was forever converted. Now I have slipped down that perilous slope into other westerns and have to say that they offer a wonderful respite from the diet of murder and mayhem I have been listening to via a plethora of suspense and thriller books. This Ralph Compton novel is just so very enjoyable -- there is ample action, wonderful descriptive writing, lots of dilemmas to be solved, some violence, some romance, and woven within are examinations of human ethics and decency. In this book, "Ed" has a troubled past and seeks his comfort in whiskey. It takes a strong, determined widow woman who needs to get her cattle to market to shake him from his stupor; help him meet and conquer his demons and create a life. Just a good listen in every way!